Now that you’ve got the basics of blogging down, let’s examine your timing.
As you’ve probably figured out, posting more is going to do you more good than posting less. But how much is enough?
Researchers at HubSpot found that businesses that post 16 times or more a month get nearly 3.5 times more traffic than those that post less than 16. And companies with 10 or fewer employees posting 11 or more times per month received 3 times more traffic than companies of the same size posting only once a month — and they received twice as much traffic as similarly-sized companies posting 2-5 posts per month.
HubSpot also found that companies posting more than 16 posts per month get around 4.5 times more leads than companies posting 4 or less times a month — and the results are compounded over time. The more posts a company publishes over time, the more traffic and leads they get, with a sizable jump once they’ve reached an archive of 400 posts.
Specifically, publishing 400 or more posts over time nets you twice as much traffic and leads as publishing 301-400, and 3 times as much as a company that posts 100 or fewer articles.
Of course, quality trumps quantity, especially in blogging. Don’t just toss out any old post to try to get to that magic number. Look at your data to see how many times a month you can reasonably expect to produce a quality post to publish.
According to data from Kissmetrics, most people read blogs in the morning – with the average time being 11:00am. And the average blog gets the most traffic on Monday morning. When it comes to social shares and going viral, the best day to post is Tuesday.
So how many posts is enough? HubSpot recommends trying for at least 11 a month. That’s 2-3 times per week — maybe Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Once you’ve got a good rhythm going, try for that magic 16-17 posts by posting Monday through Thursday, with the odd Friday thrown in once a month or so.